Established for over 160 years since the year 1860 is E. Thomas and Williams Limited. Located in the South Wales industrial town of Aberdare, E. Thomas and Williams Limited have a long and rich history specialising in the production of quality mining lamps. Mr Evan Thomas, an ironmonger by trade, produced his very first quality mining lamp back in 1860 in the small building on Cardiff St in Aberdare. Little would he know quite what a world phenomenon in terms of quality mining lamps he was creating. At this time the people of Wales and indeed people throughout the country and around the world depended heavily on the coal mining industry for their income. Many families depended entirely on what was at the time a thriving industry across communities throughout the Welsh valley district. However, coal miners in Wales or anywhere else in the country or in the world faced many similar challenges and needless to say health and safety was a constant concern not only for the miners but also for their families and for the industry itself.
Nobody can quite imagine, unless they have experienced it in person, the incredible density and blackness of the darkness when mining the equally black substance of coal at such depths. As a result, extremely essential to a miners’ safety and well being when underground would be his ability to light his way before him. This may seem like a simple problem to resolve however mining lamps that were commonly in use at the time such as the ‘Davy Lamp’ and the ‘Doctor William Reid Clanny Lamp’ brought with them many risks. For example, they lacked a certain ability to be sturdy resulting in easy damage or breakage which for a miner could result in danger, distress or even disaster. It was only when the inventful and entrepreneurial Mr Evan Thomas produced his very first quality mining lamp which became known as the ‘Evan Thomas Type No. 7 Lamp’ that the world realised something very special had been produced. The ‘Evan Thomas Type No. 7’ Lamp proved to be a vast improvement to previous mining lamps that had been in circulation. It was believed to be due to Mr Evan Thomas’ ability to have produced a lamp that was very simply constructed, sturdy, safe to use and yet without compromising on its ability to produce sufficient light. It was not long before Mr Evan Thomas’s quality mining lamps were being used gratefully throughout collieries up and down the country.
More than 1 ½ centuries down the line from that very first quality mining lamp that Evan Thomas designed, still stands Aberdare, a Welsh industrial town, and on the very site where Mr Evan Thomas once stood is E. Thomas and Williams Limited continuing to carry on the tradition of producing high quality mining lamps. For more information on the history of E. Thomas and Williams Limited and on the quality, mining lamps that they continue to produce then please do visit our website and feel free to get in contact.
